On 19 November, we mark \u2018International Men\u2019s Day\u2019. We\u2019re never quite sure whether we should take part \u2013 here\u2019s why:<\/p>\n
> The origins of Men\u2019s Day are anti-feminist.
\nThe founder of the day, Jerome Teelucksingh, is one of the leading figures in the global \u2018men\u2019s rights movement\u2019, an explicitly anti-feminist and male supremacist movement, of which the \u2018manosphere\u2019 is the latest offshoot.
\nInternational Men\u2019s Day is often portrayed as the counterpart to International Women\u2019s Day, but it is not a formal UN commemorative day. The organisation behind Men\u2019s Day is campaigning for the day to be recognised in the UN calendar as \u201cthe first official day for men or boys, when there are already 13 days for women and girls.\u201d You can also sense this lack of recognition in the fact that most Google searches for \u201cInternational Men\u2019s Day\u201d take place on 8 March every year…<\/p>\n
> Even if the focus on Men\u2019s Day isn\u2019t explicitly anti-feminist, it\u2019s usually not feminist either.
\nMuch of what takes place in the Netherlands in connection with Men\u2019s Day is not explicitly anti-feminist. That\u2019s great! But it is usually not explicitly feminist either. The problems men experience \u2013 and which Men\u2019s Day seeks to highlight \u2013 are often caused by patriarchy as well. Feminism is therefore the solution. And that needs to be explicitly stated, precisely because there is so much anti-feminist focus on these problems on men\u2019s issues.<\/p>\n
> So is it wrong to take part in Men\u2019s Day?
\nIn the Netherlands, too, there has been increasing attention on Men\u2019s Day in recent years \u2013 partly in the wake of greater focus on transforming masculinities work! More attention for masculinity norms is, of course, a good thing. At the same time, we are wary of lending legitimacy to the day, given its history. So we\u2019re not quite sure ourselves \u2013 so we\u2019ll just write a critical blog post :)<\/p>\n
> We call for attention to men, masculinities and gender justice every day.
\nEvery day is Men\u2019s Day. And every day we call for more attention for the role of boys, men and masculinities as part of the solution to gender equality, and to what men themselves stand to gain from broadening masculinity norms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On 19 November, we mark \u2018International Men\u2019s Day\u2019. We\u2019re never quite sure whether we should take part \u2013 here\u2019s why: > The origins of Men\u2019s Day are anti-feminist. The founder of the day, Jerome Teelucksingh, is one of the leading […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":4270,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-geen-onderdeel-van-een-categorie"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n